Dissonance
by theweirdperson
Summary: Echo is on the run. The only bat recombinant to make it past infancy, she's escaped with the help of a whitecoat, the only person who was ever kind to her. Now, survival isn't her only problem: she's been having the strangest dreams lately...
1. Into the Night

_Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride_

I'm a failure.

To them, at least. It's not my fault-- they're the ones who did the meddling with my DNA structure.

But perhaps I should back up a bit. My name is Echo, I'm thirteen years old, and I'm 2 percent bat.

Before you start getting visions of vampires, that 2 percent is _fruit_ bat, thank you very much. I don't suck blood.

As for why I'm a failure, the bat DNA didn't quite do all they had hoped.

Sure, I've got the giant ears, as well as bat wings... but the wings are useless. I can't fly. My bones are one hundred percent human, too heavy to allow me to lift off.

So, in their eyes, I'm a failure. I'm allowed to survive only so that the sick scientists who created me can continue to perform experiments, to study me.

See, I'm the only bat-human hybrid to survive infancy. All the others died soon after being born.

So they keep me around, to study what they're doing wrong, to see how they can make improvements on the inferior model.

I've spent most of my life in a cage. Sometimes I think I might've gone crazy if it weren't for Andrea.

Andrea was one of the whitecoats, but she was nicer than most. We looked a lot alike-- both of us had hazel eyes and straight brown hair, although hers was longer, reaching down to her back while mine was cropped at my chin. She was the one who brought me dinner in the evenings (fruit, in case you were wondering). Sometimes, when none of the other whitecoats was near, she'd talk to me. She would tell me stories about the outside, where there was grass and trees and clouds and skies. I dreamed of being able to see it one day.

And as it turned out, I got to.

---

It was night, and the lights were all turned out. I couldn't sleep, so I just sat there, staring into the darkness and giving out an occasional call, listening to the echo coming back to my ears. I made sure to listen for Erasers before doing it-- being wolf-hybrids, they really, really don't like high-pitched noises and can hear even when the noises I make higher pitched than regular humans can detect. Making Erasers angry is generally a bad idea. They can be quite vindictive.

I heard footsteps-- not an Eraser. The purposeful stride was more like that of a whitecoat's, in fact, it sounded just like...

"Andrea?"

"Echo." She reached down and undid the latch. "Hurry. There's not much time."

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"They've given up on Project Chiro. You're to be terminated tomorrow."

Terminated. Part of me had known that eventually I would cease to be useful... but I'd tried not to think about it. Now, I couldn't ignore it.

"Terminated?"

"Yes. Let's go."

I got up and followed her. I knew that this could get her into major trouble, could get her terminated herself. I said nothing.

We navigated quickly through the corridors. I didn't know the way, but she did, so I followed her.

Finally, she opened a final door and we stepped out into the night.

"Go now. There's not much time," she said.

"Why are you doing this?" I whispered.

She shook her head. "Go. Be free." She gently pushed me. "Run."

I looked at her one last time, then nodded. "Thank you." And I ran.

As I got farther away from her, I thought I heard her say, "Farewell, my daughter."

But that might have been my imagination.


	2. Waiting for Sunrise

Now, all I had to do was figure out a way to get the heck out of here...

Flying was out, for obvious reasons. I silently cursed my stupid heavy bones.

Walking was out too-- I knew that the School was located in the middle of a desert. Andrea had told me. Andrea who might just be my mother...

_Ack! No time to think about that now! I've got to escape!_

_Surely they must have some form of transportation to get supplies in and out.  
_

I eventually got to the parking lot and, surprise of surprises, one of the big cargo trucks had the trailer unlocked. I got in, hid as best as I could behind a few boxes and a sheet of canvas, and closed my eyes.

I didn't think that I'd be able to sleep at all; I just wanted to rest my eyes for a moment...

_Cage._

_I hate cages. Too small and cramped. I want to walk. Want to run._

_I snarl at the bars, but it does me no good._

_I look at my hand, and watch as fur ripples over it..._

I snapped awake as the truck starts moving. What a crazy dream...

Had I been an Eraser or something in that dream? My hand had begun to shift...

But somehow I didn't think I was. The fur didn't look right.

I shook my head. It was only a dream. It didn't matter.

I'd had lots of dreams. In some of them, I could fly...

_Stop thinking about it. There's nothing you can do._

I hated the fact that I had these stupid wings, but still couldn't fly. I'd tried before.

If the whitecoats had to mess with my DNA, couldn't they do it right?

But it was pointless to think about it, so I tried to think about something else.

Like where I was going to end up, and how I was going to get out without being detected, and how I was going to survive out here anyways...

I sat, and I waited.

When the truck finally stopped, I had decided to make a wild break for it as soon as the guy opened the door and make a run for it.

I saw a crack of light as the door began to lift, and tensed myself for a leap...

...just when the guy's cell phone rang.

He snorted in annoyance and went to answer it, leaving the door open a crack. I lifted it slowly and then ran off as quietly as I could.

It was dark, but I could 'see' easily enough by using echolocation, being careful to keep my echo-calls out of the human hearing range.

I only stopped once I got to the cover of some trees. Then, leaning against one to catch my breath, I listened carefully.

No sounds of pursuit. As far as I could tell, I'd made a clean getaway.

"East. I'll go east."

The School was in California, which was to the west of the USA, so east would get me further away, right?

Right.

Too bad I wasn't quite sure which way was east.

I knew that the sun rose in the east, but I would feel more comfortable travelling at night, being a bat-girl and all, not to mention it decreased the chances of detection.

I sighed, and sat down to wait out the night.

I'd really have to work on getting a nocturnal schedule down. They had kept me on _their _hours at the School, but out here I would do things my way.

And with those thoughts, I slipped into sleep.

_There was another girl who looked a lot like me standing across the room. At least, she looked like what I would have looked like if I didn't have wings and giant ears._

_I called out a greeting. She turned to look at me, first with anger, then with horror._

_"No! I'm not a freak! I'm not!" she screamed, then leaped at me, her face elongating and claws springing from her hands..._

I jolted awake.

The sun was a sliver on the horizon.

"East," I whispered, and started walking toward it.


	3. Keep on Truckin'

I eventually found a road, and started walking alongside it, figuring that it must lead _somewhere_.

In another inexplicable bit of luck, a big truck pulling a load of crates had broken down ahead a ways. The driver was just heading down to the nearest call box when I got there. I guess he hadn't heard of cell phones... or maybe his was broken or something. At any rate, it gave me the chance to scramble onboard and hide myself amongst the crates until he got back.

And then the next stroke of luck-- _the crates were full of oranges!_

Now, being part fruit bat, I am rather fond of fruits of all shapes and sizes. I didn't often get fresh fruit while at the School-- usually those sickly sweet syrupy canned peaches or somesuch. Andrea would occasionally slip me some real fruit. Andrea. Andrea who might be my...

_Augh! Stop it! It doesn't matter! Besides, why would I want a whitecoat for a mother? If she really is, she's heartless for giving her child up to be an experiment._

_But maybe she didn't have a choice..._

_But then again, maybe she was calling me 'daughter' in a more general sense. She's taken care of me all my life, so maybe she was just feeling maternal or something._

I shook my head in annoyance. Right now, I had to worry about food.

I opened a crate, slipped out three oranges, and carefully replaced the lid.

I tore off the skin using my fangs. Yes, fangs. Most bats have them.

After finishing the first three oranges off, I grabbed another four and took a quick peek to see if the driver was headed back.

He was. I concealed myself as best as I could.

He got back into the cab of the truck to wait for assistance.

I'm not sure how long it was until the tow truck came along. It seemed like a good while, but since the School doesn't give out wristwatches, there was no way to be sure exactly.

I snuck another two oranges before we started moving.

After another indeterminate amount of time, we entered a town. As soon as we stopped, I jumped ship (or truck, rather) and started running like heck.

I seemed to be doing that a lot these days.

I hid behind a dumpster.

It's very boring, just hiding out. Eventually I took a nap...

_**I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamed that Andrea had helped me escape, except that I wasn't me-- I was some sort of bat recombinant, and I looked younger (although I look rather older then I am, truth be told).**_

_**That would really suck-- not being able to look human. I can make myself look as human as I want to, or like a lion-woman thingy. **_

_**But I've still lived most of my life in a cage. I'm apparently the second version of the Slicer Project.**_

_**I'm not as aggressive as the Erasers, so I guess that's a strike against me, in the whitecoats' eyes at least.**_

_**At least I smell better.**_

_**It's around lunch break. Most of the whitecoats are probably hanging out in the cafeteria or something. No one's fed me yet. I'm hungry.**_

_**I hear footsteps. Food, maybe?**_

_**It's Andrea. She's the only whitecoat who was ever kind to me. She tells me things about the outside world. I've always wished to be able to see it. But she doesn't have food with her-- she just has another white coat in her hand, in addition to the one she's wearing.**_

_**"You're to be terminated," Andrea whispers urgently, unlatching my cage. "Come on."**_

_**I stand up. She hands me a white coat. "Keep your head down."**_

_**I understand. She's going to sneak me out right under the other whitecoats' noses.**_

_**I'm only eight years old, but I look like I'm twenty, courtesy of the lion genes. I'm not sure how long I'm going to live-- my predecessors both died at the age of ten, but not of natural causes (but can any cause be called natural when you're a mutant recombinant?)**_

_**We hurried through the halls and out the door.**_

_**Andrea's blue Ford is parked near the front of the parking lot. We got in, and she started driving down the road.**_

_**"I can only take you so far before I'll be missed. You'll have to wing it from there," she says. She then instructed me on how to drive a car, in case I ever needed it.**_

_**Finally, after about a half-hour's driving, she braked. "This is your stop. Good luck."**_

_**I got out.**_

_**I thought I heard her murmur, "Farewell, daughter." But that might have just been me.**_

When I woke up, it was night.

Time to get moving.


	4. Questions Compounded

Nights had always been my favorite time of day, even back at the School. It meant that all the whitecoats were gone (or at least most of them-- there were some workaholics that stayed late into the night), and also no more tests to see how far I could run before collapsing, or how I would react to some chemical. It was quiet. It was peaceful.

But out here, it was even better.

The air tasted different at night. Back at the School, it always tasted like antiseptic, but out here... I don't know how to explain it. It just is.

And there was a moon, and lots of stars... whoever invented those was a genius.

My dreams were starting to get on my nerves. Why did I keep having dreams about that... what was it called? A Slicer? Yes, that was it. I hadn't heard about any sort of morphers besides the Erasers, but I guess I'm not the expert on these types of things. Andrea never talked about the other experiments much. That was fine with me-- I had enough troubles of my own to worry about without learning about the suffering of others. I guess I sound selfish. Maybe I am, but can you blame me? I didn't want to borrow trouble, and I couldn't have done anything anyways.

The only problem with night was that it was rather chilly. And I was still wearing my hospital dress from the School. Not very insulating.

I had to find something.

I snuck very, very quietly out from behind the dumpster, letting out the occasional squeak to make sure I wasn't about to run into anything.

It was almost silent. I crept down the sidewalk, keeping myself alert, listening out for any footfalls... especially those made by Erasers. They have a rather distinct gait, a smooth, gliding lope. I'd memorized the basic pattern as a survival mechanism.

All clear. I kept walking.

Now, where would I find something less conspicuous to wear?

I turned to see a large box sitting by the doors of a church labelled 'Charity'. Peering in, I saw that there were brown paper grocery bags full of clothing. Well, I certainly could use some charity, and if they were giving it away anyways...

I grabbed a powder blue sweatshirt with three little cartoony monkey heads on the front. It had a hood-- handy for hiding larger-than-usual ears. I snagged some jeans as well. They looked about my size. Darting away to a more secluded area to try them on, I started thinking again.

What if this Slicer was real? Why did she look so much like me? A bit older, true... but still. What if she was my sister or something?

Maybe these dreams were some weird power manifesting. I'd heard that the whitecoats were learning how to genetically engineer stuff like telepathy. Frankly, however, I couldn't see the use of my dreams besides freaking me out.

I slipped into my new outfit. When the hood was on, though, everything sounded muffled, so I took it off. I depend a lot on my ears, and I feel half-blind without them. I decided to wear the hood only during the day, when people might see.

Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced my skull. I grabbed my head with both hands and collapsed before blacking out.

_**I have her scent, now. That bat-girl.**_

_**I know what bats smell like. They put me in an dark enclosure with some, once. They wanted to test my night vision as well as my hunting ability.**_

_**I hadn't been fed for two days prior, to make sure I'd cooperate. The bats' squeaking really got on my nerves, and I caught a few. I discovered that I had no particular fondness for bat.**_

_**However, when I was full, I shifted back to my human form. The squeaking wasn't so loud anymore.**_

_**The whitecoats were displeased. An Eraser would have kept on killing, just for the sake of killing, or at least to quiet the infernal squeaking. I wasn't aggressive enough for the whitecoats.**_

_**But that is in the past. If I never see another whitecoat again it'll be too soon.**_

_**For now... I'll track Batty. I'll find out who she is, why she looks like me, and why she haunts my dreams.**_

_**That is my nightmare-- because I am no good as an experiment, I seek at least to be a good human. I can look human. Heck, I can look like a supermodel. But she never can. She will always be a freak.**_

_**For now, I will remain in feline form. It's better for tracking.**_

"Unnh..." I sat up cautiously. Well, it seemed the dreams didn't really care whether I was asleep or not.

_Wait a minute... she calls me Batty!?_

Yeesh. I might be a little odd, but I'm not crazy.

If she's tracking me, though, it means we'll probably meet up. Then maybe we'll both get our answers.

That is, if she doesn't just tear me apart. She might not be as aggressive as an Eraser... but the whole tearing-apart-bats-and-eating-them thing kind of creeped me out, what with my being part bat and all.

Still, there's hope. She did say that she wasn't fond of bat...


	5. Give Me a Break!

Well, I had two options as far as I could tell.

Option one: stay here and wait for my feline friend to show up.

Pros: She might know something I don't. We both knew Andrea. Maybe there's some sort of connection here. Answers are good, and _I'm _sure not heading back to the School to search around for records of my parents and/or siblings.

Cons: She might be hungry enough to ignore any distaste for bat or bat-kid.

And then there was option two: run for it, keep on the move, and hope she never catches up.

Pros: Less risk of becoming cat food.

Cons: Well, running forever isn't much of a life. And she's probably faster than I am anyways. It's not as if I can fly away. And I am curious.

I guess I'll go for number one, then. I'll hang out here until the Slicer shows up...

Okay, now that just doesn't sound right. Yeesh.

My stomach reminded me that there were more urgent concerns at hand by growling at me. I went off in search of dinner.

I found some hamburger buns in the dumpster behind a fast food joint. Not a particularly appetizing meal, but I could stomach it, and it would keep me standing until I could find some real fare.

But no such luck tonight. I ran off to find a safe place to sleep as the sky began to turn grey with dawn's approach.

Oddly enough, I had no dreams at all. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I woke up a few times when I heard footsteps in my chosen alley, but was otherwise undisturbed.

When night came, I once more began my quest for fruit. Or food in general, I guess, but I really wasn't in the mood for another hamburger bun dinner. What I wouldn't give for another orange truck...

Wandering across the campus of an elementary school (although the word 'school' still made me shudder), I saw a sign that said 'Canned Goods Drive'.

A single, lonely can of peaches lay there on the blacktop. I guess someone must have dropped it. Pity they didn't drop a can opener to go with it. I banged it against the ground until it opened a slit, and I somehow managed to pry it open enough to extract the golden peachy goodness. Not as good as fresh oranges, but better than nothing.

I tossed the can in the garbage, not being one to litter, and broke into a run, just for kicks. I spread out my thin, membranous wings and felt the air rushing over them. It was nice.

Until the pain hit again. I managed to stagger into a hiding spot behind some bushes before collapsing.

_**I'm close. I can feel it.**_

_**Soon I'll find Batty, and then...**_

_**Augh! Painpainpainpainpain**_

I jolted awake. It was still dark out.

It seemed like Kitty (if she's going to call me Batty, I'm going to reciprocate) was having some headaches of her own.

Wait a second... if her headaches meant the same thing mine did... she was probably in my head right now, hearing my thoughts...

I hope she doesn't mind the nickname too much.


	6. Short for Evisceration

I slept through the next day, as per usual. No dreams, for once.

I wandered around, occasionally taking a peep into a Dumpster to see if there was anything edible inside. I scored bigtime behind a fast-food restaraunt-- a few pre-packaged fruit salads, one day past the sell-by date, but still perfectly good. I feasted, and sat back, full and content.

Obviously, this state of affairs wasn't going to go on for long.

I heard some footsteps. I could recognize the smooth, fluid gait...

_Here, kitty kitty kitty..._

"Well, here goes nothing," I muttered, standing up.

She looked a bit surprised when I stepped out into the open.

"Bat girl," she said simply.

At least she hadn't called me Batty.

"It's Echo," I replied.

She just nodded. She was in human form, and to see the resemblance face-to-face was rather shocking.

"I am Viss," she stated.

"Viss?"

"It is short for Evisceration."

"Oookay... Viss works."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Echo. We've covered that."

"That is not what I meant, and you know it."

"Fine, fine. I honestly don't know anything-- why we look alike, why we both look kind of like Andrea... you know her too, right?"

Viss nodded, and motioned for me to continue.

"Yeah, then. So, you don't know anything either?"

"No."

"Dang. I had hoped... well, never mind. You aren't planning on eating me, are you?"

"No, I suppose not." The Slicer sighed. "I am hungry, though."

"I take it you don't go for fruit salad."

"You are quite correct."

"Hmm. Can't really help you food-wise, then."

"There are plenty of jackrabbits hopping about if you know where to look. They are reasonably good eating."

"Oh." _Ick._

"I will find you again later, then." She turned to go, then looked back.

"You... have been having the headaches too, correct?"

"Yeah... why?"

"Perhaps we are here for a purpose."

"What do you mean?"

"Whatever these headache-visions are, they were caused by the whitecoats. Why bother if we are throwaways? Somehow, we are connected..."

I shrugged. "Or we're just experiments, the practice run for the real plan."

"Perhaps. I do not know. I will go hunting now. Farewell."

She shifted to her felinoid form, and ran off on all fours.

I felt a brief flash of what it was like to be a Slicer, the power in her muscles, the easy assurance that no prey could escape her...

And then it was gone. My head hurt a little, but not nearly as much as before.

I watched her run until she was out of sight.

I sat back in my hiding place behind the dumpster.

_Maybe she's my sister or something._

_Then who are our parents?_

_Is Andrea... our mother?_

_But she's a whitecoat. As nice as she was at times, she did take part in the tests they put me through..._

_Yet she helped me... helped us escape._

_  
Why?_

_  
Is it some sort of test?_

Another brief flash. I felt the thrill of the hunt through Viss' eyes, the final scream of the rabbit when she sank her claws into it...

I broke away before she started eating.

Carnivores. Blech.


	7. On the Road Again

_Author's note: I apologize for the late update, but circumstances conspired against me. Hope you all enjoy the chapter!_

It's funny, really, the sorts of things that people throw away.

Like this tennis ball, for instance. Nothing really wrong with it besides one brown spot on the side.

I couldn't sleep this morning, so I was hanging out in this alley, bouncing it against the wall. The thuds made an almost comforting (if loud) rhythm.

After that got dull, I curled up and tried to sleep again.

I woke up a few hours later, drenched in sweat, after a rather harrowing dream in which I was a rabbit pursued by a very hungry Viss.

Speaking of Viss...

"Hello, Echo."

She was in human form (best for blending in with the general populace. Wish I could do that.)

"Hey, Viss." I stood up, rolled my shoulders a few times, and yawned. "Catch a lot of bunnies?"

"Yes."

"So... what's up?"

"I was thinking... I believe we ought to move on."

"Move on? Well, I guess..." The School hadn't caught up with me yet, but who knew how long my luck would hold? Unless they'd just decided to give up on me or something.

Yeah. And there's a great bridge I want to sell you, too.

The thing was, where to go? I doubted that I'd be lucky enough to snag a ride on an orange truck again.

"I have procured keys to a car." She held them up. "We should really leave before the owner becomes aware of his loss."

Oh great. Grand theft auto.

I mean, it's one thing to snitch a few oranges. But stealing a car?

Well, this _was_ a life-or-death thing. I'm sure the owner would be happy to donate his car to help a few kids in need. And besides, I'm sure his insurance would cover it.

"Ah, okay," I said, grabbing my tennis ball and pulling up my hood. "Hey... do you even know how to drive?"

"I watched Andrea. I believe I have the general idea."

That did not boost my confidence.

The car in question was a shiny red Ford. Viss hopped into the driver's seat. Technically, I'm the older one, so I wondered briefly whether I should drive. But only very briefly. Viss did have more experience, even if it was just being able to observe someone else closely. Besides, I was still a little shaky after the rabbit dream.

She started up the car, and we were on the road.

Fortunately, Viss really did have "the general idea", at least enough that we didn't crash or get pulled over by cops. We even drove pretty close to the speed limit.

Both of us were silent for a while. Then I said, "Mind if I turn on the radio?"

"Sure," Viss replied, shrugging.

I pushed the button... and clapped my hands over my ears as my ears were assaulted by a barrage of noise. Apparently, the guy who owned this car liked his music loud. As in, you can hear it across a parking lot loud. I jabbed the button to turn the radio off again. My ears were ringing.

Any sympathy I might have had for the guy whose car we had borrowed evaporated.

We continued our drive in silence. I guess I could have just turned the volume down, but I really wasn't inclined to turn the radio back on after that little experience.

Besides, if the radio was on, we might not have been able to hear the whirring blades of the chopper overhead.

I heard it first, thanks to my batty ears (which had by this time stopped ringing and had mostly resumed their normal functions).

I rolled down the window and peeked my head out. Yup, there was a chopper flying behind us. It was still pretty far away, though.

I didn't mention it until Viss asked why I kept poking my head out the window. "You'll attract attention," she hissed at me.

"It's just that there's a helicoper behind us... it might be an ordinary helicopter, but..."

"Urgh," she snarled. "I'll take a few turns and we can see if it follows us."

She did. It did.

"Should we ditch the car?" I asked.

"It's our best mode of transportation for now. If we head off on foot it will only help them track us," she replied.

It was about then that I started hearing police sirens. It wasn't long at all before an officer had pulled up alongside and was motioning for us to pull over.

We really couldn't do that. Even if the chopper wasn't School property, we were driving a stolen vehicle without a license.

Yeah.

"Floor it!" I told Viss.

"With pleasure," she replied.

It was our good fortune that the stretch of road we were on was only sparsely populated with other cars. Even so, when Viss swerved to avoid a collusion, the car went skidding off the road... and into a tree.

We hit it head-on, and the last thing I saw before passing out was the airbag inflating.


	8. Into the Sky

FWIP-FWIP-FWIP-FWIP

That was the noise which greeted me as I woke up. It took my aching brain a moment to realize what it was.

_Helicopter blades!_

They sounded very close, too.

Opening my eyes, I realized the reason for that was that I was actually _in _the helicopter. This was definitely not a good thing. I had the mother of all headaches, to boot.

Speaking of mother...

"Hello, Echo." Andrea sat next to me. "It's nice to see you again."

"Wish I could say the same," I mumbled. Looking around, I could see the other passengers: Erasers.

"I'm sorry that we had to end this experiment so soon. It was rather interesting, wasn't it?" Andrea said.

"Experiment?" I replied.

"Letting the two of you escape. We wished to see how you would survive in the outside world."

"You mean... I wasn't going to be killed after all?"

"You were, but I convinced the others that this would be a decent way to test how a lab-raised recombinant would react to a non-lab environment. We were somewhat pleased at the results. Of course, you were hardly a success, as far as those things go. Useless wings and all. Evisceration was somewhat more impressive, but I suppose she could blend a bit better. All in all, an interesting project."

"You mean... this whole thing was just another test? All planned out?"

"Yes, Echo."

Then it wasn't just an act of kindness.

"What now?" I asked.

"We will return to the School. Your ultimate fate will be decided there. If you are lucky, perhaps you'll simply have your wings amputated, and a new set of tests run. Your sonar, after all, did turn out well."

"And if I'm not lucky?"

"A painless death."

Neither option sounded particularly appealing. There was still one thing I needed to know.

"Are you... my mother?"

"Yes."

No elaboration. Just the simple affirmative.

"Why did you let this happen? Why did you let me get my DNA screwed with? Why did you leave me with a bunch of psycho scientists?"

"I was asked twice to donate ovum to create experimental subjects. You were the result of the first time. Evisceration was the result of the second."

Ah. We were sisters, after all. Or at least half-sisters.

But... to Andrea, I was just another experiental subject. She didn't love me. Perhaps she felt sorry or guilty enough to show some level of kindness, but not the mother I'd dreamed about.

"Where's Viss?" I asked.

"She managed to escape the crash. We do not know of her current whereabouts."

I was glad of that, at least.

_Echo? Where are you?_

Her voice rang in my head. I tried to answer.

_They got me. I'm in a helicopter now._

_No! I thought you had escaped! I should have grabbed you, I should have done something, but I panicked. I am so sorry! I am a coward... _Viss trailed off.

_You couldn't have done anything. You'd have just ended up caught too. At least this way, one of us stays free. And I'm not going back to the School._

_What do you mean?_

I unbuckled my seatbelt.

"What are you doing?" Andrea asked.

I reached for the door handle.

"Sit back down this instant!"

I opened the door... and jumped.

"Echo!"

_Echo!_

The voices of my mother and sister came at the same moment. I unfurled my wings. They wouldn't stop my fall. They wouldn't even slow it enough for me to survive.

But...

It feels like I'm flying.


End file.
